He remained there till the end of the year, with plenty of hard work but no fighting, for he was in charge of the base at Durban. He was mentioned in despatches, and was made brevet lieut.-colonel on 21 April 1880.
He was chief staff officer at Devonport from 1 July 1880 till the end of August 1884, with the exception of three months (Aug. Oct. 1882), when he was serving on Sir Garnet Wolseley's staff in Egypt. He was present at Tel-el-Kebir, was mentioned in despatches (Lond. Gaz. 2 Nov. 1882), and received the medal with clasp, the bronze star, and the Medjidieh (3rd class). He was made aide-de-camp to the Queen, with the rank of colonel, on 18 Nov. 1882.
In 1884, when the relief of Gordon became a practical question, Butler was consulted by Lord Wolseley, and threw himself heartily into the plan of ascending the Nile in boats, such as had been used in the Red River expedition. He had met Gordon some years before, and had been deeply impressed by him. He regarded the relief expedition as 'the very first war during the Victorian era in which the object was entirely noble and worthy.' On 12 August he was charged with the provision of 400 boats, and in a month they were ready and some of them on their way. Butler went to Egypt in September, and during the next three months he worked superhumanly to get boats and troops up the cataracts. This having been accomplished, he joined headquarters at Korti, and was sent on with the river column under General Earle. The victory at Kirbekan on 10 Feb. 1885 was largely due to him; for he had examined the ground on which the Mahdists were posted, and persuaded Earle to turn their position instead of attacking it in front. When the expedition returned down the Nile, Butler was put in command of the small force left behind at Meroe. In June he brought this force to Dongola, and went home. His services were mentioned in despatches (Lond. Gaz. 10 April and 25 Aug. 1885) and he received two clasps.
In September he was back at Wady Haifa. He had been given command of the troops on the new frontier of Egypt, after the abandonment of the Sudan, with the local rank of brigadier-general on 1 July 1885. In December the Mahdists advanced in force from Dongola, and attacked him near Kosheh. He had four battalions, two of them British, and some cavalry and mounted infantry, and he had built some forts. The Mahdists tore up the railway, but could effect nothing more; and at the end of the month, when reinforcements had come up from Cairo, they were decisively beaten at Giniss. Butler commanded one of the two brigades of General Stephenson's force in this action, and was mentioned in despatches (Lond. Gaz. 6 Feb. 1886). Four British battalions were left at Wady Haifa under his command, but they suffered greatly from the heat; they were replaced by Egyptian troops in May, and Butler himself was invalided at the end of June.
He came home embittered. He had had no reward for his exertions, his warnings and remonstrances had given offence, and there was no immediate employment for him. On 25 Nov. he was made K.C.B. He spent the next two years in Brittany and in Ireland. He wrote 'The Campaign of the Cataracts,' published in 1887, and he became intimate with Charles Stewart Parnell [q. v.], being himself a strong home-ruler. In the autumn of 1888 he was associated with Colonel Macgregor in an inquiry into the ordnance store department. Their report, which he drafted, gave so much offence to the civil side of the war office that it was suppressed. During 1889 he was employed in negotiations for the purchase of sites for defensible storehouses on the south and east sides of London. He returned to Egypt in February 1890, to command the garrison of Alexandria. In 1877 he had married Elizabeth Southerden, daughter of T. J. Thompson, and already distinguished as the painter of 'The Roll Call.' He and his wife now paid a visit to Palestine, which had for him a twofold interest, religious and Napoleonic. He was promoted major-general on 7 Dec. 1892, and on 11 Nov. 1893 he was appointed to the command of a brigade at Aldershot. He was transferred to the command of the S.E. district on 24 Feb. 1896. He had received a reward for distinguished service on 12 Dec. 1894.
In October 1898 he was offered and accepted the command of the troops in South Africa, vacant by the death of General Goodenough. It was not a happy choice at such a time, for he was predisposed to sympathise with people who came in collision with England. He landed at Cape Town on 30 Nov., and in the absence of Sir Alfred Milner he was sworn in as high commissioner. He found himself in 'the central stormspot of the world,' having received no directions to guide him on leaving England. The ill-treatment
